Teams

Teams Scoring

Team play has become popular in clubs and tournaments. Two members of your team, playing as a partnership, sit North-South at one table. Two other members of your team, also playing as a partnership, sit East-West at a different table. The two pairs from the opposing team fill the empty spots at the two tables. During the course of the match, exactly the same boards are played at both tables.

Each player should have a score card to record the score on each board. The card has a row for each board. The beginning of North’s card from table 1, when completed, might look like this:

Board

Final

Score

IMPs

Deal #

Vul

Contract

By

Plus

Minus

Plus

Minus

N 1

–

4S

S

420

E 2

NS

5D*

W

500

S 3

EW

3NT

W

690

W 4

All

2H

N

140

Note that the scoring for actual contract is the same as in duplicate scoring. What will change is how the scores at both tables are compared.

In the contract column 5D* (diamonds) means 5D doubled. The “By” column shows who was declarer. The score is recorded from North’s point of view, so when West goes down in 5D, it is positive. The International Matchpoints (IMPs) can be filled in only when this card is compared with one from the other room. Suppose that our teammate East at the other table has a card like this:

Board

Final

Score

IMPs

Deal #

Vul

Contract

By

Plus

Minus

Plus

Minus

N 1

–

4S

S

450

E 2

NS

4H

N

620

S 3

EW

6NT

W

1440

W 4

All

4H

N

100

Now the differences can be converted to IMPs for the team. The following standard International Matchpoint Scale is used:

Point difference

IMPs

0 – 10

0

20 – 40

1

50 – 80

2

90 – 120

3

130 – 160

4

170 – 210

5

220 – 260

6

270 – 310

7

320 – 360

8

370 – 420

9

430 – 490

10

500 – 590

11

600 – 740

12

750 – 890

13

900 – 1090

14

1100 – 1290

15

1300 – 1490

16

1500 – 1740

17

1750 – 1990

18

2000 – 2240

19

2250 – 2490

20

2500 – 2990

21

3000 – 3490

22

3500 – 3990

23

4000 or more

24

So in the example, on the first board the difference between the two tables was 30 against us, and we lose 1 IMP. On the second board we lose 3 IMPs. Although our North-South pair defeated West’s 5, with the same cards our East-West pair allowed North to play and make 4. On board 3, where we bid the small slam while they stopped in game, we gain 13 IMPs for a 750-point difference. On board 4 both Norths made nine tricks in hearts, but we gain 6 IMPs because our North-South pair just bid 2 rather than 4. Overall we are 15 IMPs ahead on those four boards.

At the end of the match, the result is the difference in IMPs between the teams. Sometimes there is then a further conversion of this margin into a match result, in which some fixed number of victory points is apportioned between the teams. There is no standard conversion table, but here is an example table for a 24-board match:

IMP difference

Victory Points

0 – 2

10 – 10

3 – 6

11 – 9

7 – 11

12 – 8

12 – 16

13 – 7

17 – 21

14 – 6

22 – 27

15 – 5

28 – 33

16 – 4

34 – 39

17 – 3

40 – 46

18 – 2

47 – 54

19 – 1

55 or more

20 – 0

In the example, if we were still 13 IMPs ahead having played 24 boards, using this table we would win the match 13-7. If the match was part of some larger competition, such as a league, then we would score 13 victory points and our opponents would score 7.